NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Kokrajhar, Assam on Friday, to participate in an event to celebrate the signing of the Bodo agreement.
This will be the prime minister’s first visit to the North East since protests erupted against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act last December in which three people were killed.
“Tomorrow, I look forward to being in Assam. I will be in Kokrajhar to address a public meeting. We will mark the successful signing of the Bodo Accord, which brings to an end a problem that had been persisting for decades. It marks the start of a new era of peace and progress,” he said in a tweet. The Bodo Accord was signed on January 27 by the government with four factions of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), All Bodo Students’ Union and a civil society group for bringing a lasting peace in Bodo-dominated areas in Assam. A cultural programme of ethnic groups of Assam is being organised to showcase the diversity of the state. In a recent tweet, the prime minister had termed the day the accord was signed “a very special day for India” and said that it “will lead to a transformative results for Bodo people, ushering in a new dawn of peace, harmony and togetherness”.
Over 1,615 cadres of different factions of the NDFB surrendered their arms and joined the mainstream within two days of the signing of the agreement. In his latest ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio address, the prime minister had appealed to all those on the path of violence to return to the mainstream and lay down their arms.
A summit meeting between Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, scheduled to be held in Guwahati in December, was cancelled due to the anti-CAA protests. Modi was also invited for the inauguration of the recently-concluded Khelo India Games in Guwahati but he did not attend it.
The prime minister said that for years the Northeastern region was ignored but things changed under his government, and it has now become a growth engine.
Replying to a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the president’s Address in Lok Sabha, Modi also said many problems in the North East were resolved only for meeting political reasons and remained confined to papers.
“Let us talk about the Bodo Accord. Despite many efforts, the issue was unsolved for years. The Bodo Accord signed now is special because it has brought all stakeholders together and we are moving towards a more peaceful era,” he said. The prime minister said for years, distance became a reason to ignore the North East and things have changed now.
“The North East is becoming a growth engine. Great work has been done in so many sectors. Ministers and officials are regularly visiting the region,” he said. (PTI)
